The formula "For thou art I, and I am thou" recurs in these papyrus prayers. Mead's footnote on the first sets beside it the Gospel of Eve, where the same words are a voice of revelation: the hearer who gathers the Word gathers himself. Here they work as leverage. The speaker claims the god's name as his own, and the requests that follow are "let them give me gold, and silver [too]," and food of every kind. Mead's note answers that this "is not necessarily a prayer for physical form and the rest," but the prayer's own order, identification first and petition after, supports the plainer reading. The magician claims Hermes' powers; the gospel's mystic seeks union. The words are the same and the uses are not.
Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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7. I know thee, Hermes, and thou [knowest] me;
[and] I am thou, and thou art I.6
8. Come unto me ; fulfil all that I crave ; be favourable to me together with good fortune and the blessing of the Good.7
III. AN INVOCATION TO LORD HERMES
[Revised and restored text, B. 21. It is worked in with the preceding, but is of later date.]
1. Come unto me, Lord Hermes, 0 thou of many names, who know'st the secrets hidden both beneath the poles [of heaven] and underneath the earth !
1 2Tra<f>po$iff(a,v irpoar&irov. See I. 13 above.
2 The symbols of which are : the ibis in the east, ape in the west, the serpent in the north, the wolf (or jackal) in the south. So says the overworking of the text ; but perhaps wolf should rather be dog.
3 The terebinth, or turpentine palm. Compare this with the story of Terebinthus, from whose four Books Manes is said, in the A eta Archelai, to have derived his system.
4 The ebony ; perhaps symbolic of the " dark " wisdom, the initiation " in the black " of the K. K. Fragments.
5 TO. ftapfiapiKo, bv6na.ro. — lit., barbarous, that is, non-Greek.
6 Qf. I. 11.
7 Lit., with Agathodaimon ; compare <ri>v Ot$ — "with God's blessing."
2. Come unto me, Lord Hermes, thou benefactor, who doest good to all the world !
3. Give ear to me, [and] give me grace with all that are on earth ; open for me the hands of all that give like thee ; l [and] make them give me what their hands contain !
4. Even as Horus,2 if e'er he called on thee, 0 greatest of all gods, in every trial, in every space, 'gainst gods, and men, and daimones, and things that live in water and on earth, — had grace and riches with gods, and men, and every living thing beneath the earth ; — so let me, too, who call on thee ! So give me grace, form, beauty !
6. Hear me, 0 Hermes, doer of good deeds, thou the inventor of [all] incantations,3 speak me good words ! *
7. Hear me, 0 Hermes, for I have done all things [that I should do] for thy black dog-ape,5 lord of the nether ones !
8. 0, soften all [towards me], and give me might
1 <rvv$<i>K<ii'Tuv — a 3ira| \eydfi.(vov — SUKU (5i5a>/xi) may be compared with OT^KOJ ("(TTTj/u). The image may be taken from the well-known symbolical representation of the sun sending forth rays, each furnished with a hand for giving and blessing, especially in the frescoes of the Atem-cult period. Cf. K. K., 11 and 31.
2 In the mystery-myth.
3 Orig., medicines or philtres.
* tv5ia\(Kros yevov — a unique and inelegant expression in Greek, and of uncertain translation into English.
6 This appears here to refer to Anubis, the " dog " of Hades, or the "death-genius," the attendant on Thoth. "Black" is lit. "Ethiopian." But compare in Pistis Sophia, 367, "^Ethiopia Ariouth," a ruler among the infernal daimonials, who is " entirely black." The Ethiopians were famous for their sorcery and black magic. They were the traditional opponents of the "white magicians " of Egypt. Compare " Hor, son of the Negress" in the " Second Story of Khamuas," in Griffith's (F. LI.) Stories of the High Priests of Memphis (Oxford, 1900), pp. 51 ff.
[and] form,1 and let them give me gold, and silver [too], and food of every kind continually.
9. Preserve me evermore for the eternity from spells, deceits, and witchery of every kind, from evil tongues, from every check and every enmity of gods and men!
10. Give unto me grace, victory, success, and satisfaction !
11. For thou art I, and I am thou ; thy Name is mine, and mine is thine; for that I am thy likeness.2
12. Whatever shall befall me in this year, or month, or day, or hour, — it shall befall the Mighty God, whose symbol is upon the holy vessel's prow.3
1 This is not necessarily a prayer for physical form and the rest, but a prayer that the subtle ka of the man, the plastic soulsubstance, may take a form of power and beauty, in the unseen world.